ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS


Great things were expected of the first Parliament which was
chosen on the basis of the new law. The seats gained by the
disfranchisement of the small and corrupt boroughs were
distributed to new constituencies in London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, and the other modern
cities. The more populous counties were subdivided into
districts, and the divisions received additional representation.
The franchise had also been extended and based upon a moderate
property qualification. The result was, that the center of
political power passed from the nobility and landed gentry, with
whom it had resided for centuries, and came to the farmers and
shop-keepers, the so-called middle class, lying between the
ancient aristocracy of birth and landed possessions and the still
unenfranchised masses of mill operatives and agricultural
laborers. That the new Parliament would show a new temper and be
dominated by new ideas was but natural. But those who inferred
from the bitterness of the struggle for reform that the nation
was on the verge of an abyss into which the Lords and the Crown
should shortly topple, greatly deceived themselves.


THE POOR LAWS


The reformed Parliaments devoted themselves to certain long-